Scott McIntyre/Staff
Riccardo Rivas leaves the courtroom alongside his attorney Donald Day after getting his driving privileges back on Friday March 21, 2014 at the Collier County Courthouse. Rivas was charges in 2009 for killing a 32 year old woman after driving through a red light at a North Naples intersection and was then charged in 2012 for possessing alcohol under the age of 21.

Scott McIntyre/Staff
Riccardo Rivas appears in court to request to get his driving privileges back on Friday March 21, 2014 at the Collier County Courthouse. Rivas was charges in 2009 for killing a 32 year old woman after driving through a red light at a North Naples intersection and was then charged in 2012 for possessing alcohol under the age of 21.

Scott McIntyre/Staff
Riccardo Rivas appears in court alongside his attorney Donald Day to request to get his driving privileges back on Friday March 21, 2014 at the Collier County Courthouse. Rivas was charges in 2009 for killing a 32 year old woman after driving through a red light at a North Naples intersection and was then charged in 2012 for possessing alcohol under the age of 21.

Nearly five years after he drove into a North Naples intersection at more than 70 mph, killing a mother of two, Riccardo Rivas II can get back behind the wheel.

Collier Circuit Judge James Shenko granted Rivas' request Friday to receive driving privileges to and from work, counseling and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings — the first time Rivas has gotten permission to drive since the May 2009 fatal crash.

Rivas is three years into a four-year driver license revocation required by his plea agreement on a vehicular homicide charge. He served 10 months of a yearlong jail sentence stemming from the multicar crash, which killed 32-year-old Tracy Cate, of Cape Coral, at Pine Ridge Road and Whippoorwill Lane.

Rivas said the driving privileges would allow him easier transportation to his job as a phone sales operator in Delray Beach, as well as appointments for alcohol abuse treatment on Florida's southeast coast. Rivas went through a treatment program and a halfway house following two citations in Georgia for possessing alcohol as a minor in late 2012. The citations were violations of his probation, resulting in the extension of his probation sentence from four to six years.

Assistant state attorney James Chandler didn't raise any objection to the limited reinstatement of driving privileges during a three-minute hearing Friday, calling the request "fair."

"I was going to object if it was for a blanket opportunity for him to drive on his own," Chandler said.

Other terms of Rivas' sentence remain intact. Rivas is still on probation and cannot possess alcohol. He still must return to Collier County twice a year — on Cate's birthday and the anniversary of the crash — to serve a day in jail while his probation is in place.

Donald Day, Rivas' lawyer, said his client has undergone intensive counseling and "stringent controls" remain, preparing Rivas for returning to the road. Day said Rivas is "doing great" since his release from treatment.

"He's really progressing along well, and as indicated in court today, there were no problems expressed by anyone," Day said.

Terms of Rivas' sentence have been eased before, and prosecutors have previously said they intended to reduce restrictions as the years went on. In January 2012, a Collier judge ruled Rivas could shed an GPS ankle monitor early so he could move to Georgia with his parents.

Rivas' mother and father, a psychologist who once contracted with the Collier County Sheriff's Office, were in attendance Friday.